Rue de Rivoli

The Rue de Rivoli, a major thoroughfare running along the northern side of the Tuileries Gardens, is the Parisian address of the Persian, the mysterious figure who knew the Opera ghost's secrets better than anyone. It was in his little flat on this street that the Persian lived for years after his banishment from Persia, and it was there that he received the author Gaston Leroux, who came to gather the evidence that would prove the ghost's existence. The flat became the final repository of the ghost's tragic story, the place where the last, most intimate details of Erik's life were revealed.

The Persian's Residence and Leroux's Visit

The Persian's flat was a modest, old-fashioned apartment in the Rue de Rivoli, opposite the Tuileries. When Leroux visited him there, he found the Persian very ill, his face worn, his head shaved, dressed in a long plain coat, but with his mind perfectly clear. The Persian told his story with complete lucidity, recounting the entire tragedy of the Chagny family and the Opera ghost. Leroux describes the scene: the Persian received him at a window overlooking the garden of the Tuileries, and his faithful old servant Darius showed the author in. It was in this flat that the Persian, after despairing of being believed by the police, had written his own narrative of the events in the cellars of the Opera, a manuscript that Leroux would later quote verbatim.

Erik's Final Visit

The Rue de Rivoli flat was also the scene of Erik's last appearance in the world above ground. After the events in the house on the lake, when the Persian had despaired of ever obtaining a hearing from the authorities, a stranger who refused his name and would not show his face came to the flat, declaring he would not leave until he had spoken to the daroga. The Persian immediately recognized his visitor: it was Erik, the Opera ghost. Erik was extremely weak, leaning against the wall as though afraid of falling, his forehead white as wax, the rest of his horrible face hidden by the mask. He had come to tell the Persian that he was going to die of love for Christine Daae. In a series of gasping, emotional confessions, Erik revealed that he had kissed Christine, that she had wept with him, and that he had released her and Raoul de Chagny. He promised that, when he felt his end was near, he would send the Persian all of Christine's papers, a pair of gloves, a shoe-buckle, and two pocket-handkerchiefs. He asked the Persian to inform the young couple of his death and to advertise it in the newspaper L'Époque. The Persian saw Erik to the door of the flat, and Darius helped him down to the street, where a cab was waiting. Erik gave the driver a single order: "Go to the Opera." The cab drove off into the night, and the Persian never saw him again.

The Aftermath and the Archives

After Erik's death, the Persian held the main proofs of the ghost's existence, which came to him with the pious relics promised by Erik. It was in the Rue de Rivoli flat that Leroux, day by day, kept the Persian informed of the progress of his own inquiries, and the Persian directed them. The Persian had not been to the Opera for years, but he preserved an accurate recollection of the building and guided Leroux to its most secret recesses. The flat thus served as the command center for the historical investigation that would finally confirm the truth of the Opera ghost. The Persian's manuscript, Christine Daae's papers, and the statements of witnesses were all assembled there, forming the documentary foundation of Leroux's book. The Rue de Rivoli, a street of shops and arcades, became the unlikely archive of a tragedy that had unfolded in the darkness beneath the Paris Opera House.